Thursday, March 1, 2012

And just when I thought that Flo Braker’s banana cake would hold the title of “best banana cake ever baked in my kitchen” forever Mr. Dan Lepard showed up with the idea of caramelizing the bananas before adding them to the cake batter – how great is that? The cake turned out absolutely tender, with a deep, beautiful golden hue and a delicious, strong banana flavor.

Make the butterscotch bananas: tip the sugar into a frying pan with the water and cook over medium heat stirring until sugar is dissolved – after that, do not stir again. Bring to the boil then cook over high heat until the sugar turns to a dark reddish caramel. Add the banana pieces, butter and vanilla – carefully, caramel may spit – and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the bananas break up in the caramel and the mixture is thick. Spoon on to a plate and leave to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter a 20cm square pan and line the base with baking paper. Butter the paper as well*.
Beat the sugar with the oil and eggs until thick and slightly aerated, then beat in the bananas, yogurt and vanilla. Sift the flours, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt together over the bowl, then fold this through the banana mixture.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes or until golden, risen and a skewer inserted comes out clean.

* I used a pan with a removable bottom and did not line it with baking paper – just buttered it really well, especially in the corners

I'm sorry but I'll leave you with your bananas... even if I love everything with banana (yoghurt, juice, ice cream...) I cannot stand banana cake!!! This one looks delicious, but it's not for me! :)More cake left for you!!!Martina

Butterscotch and banana! What's not to like? If I made this my boyfriend would find me slumped over the pan spouting butterscotch-addled gibberish with crumbs everywhere and a big dumb grin on my face.

Hi there,It's really nice that you like this Dan Lepard recipe, but we do ask bloggers to simply say where the original recipe was taken from and then to write about any changes they've made, and how they adapted it to the tools and ingredients they had in their kitchen, but not to print the whole recipe. I hope you'll understand that it's very easy for the entire contents of a book to end up online without the author's approval, and we would instead encourage bloggers to "talk around" the recipe and major on their own ideas and photos. I hope you'll understand and agree to this requestThanks for your cooperation,David Whitehouse, Editor, Short & Sweet

Hi Mr. Whitehouse,I understand your concern about the book, but if you'd read my version of the recipe you would have noticed it is an adaptation of Mr. Lepard's recipe, one I found online and it is published on a website where anyone can read:http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2007/nov/24/foodanddrink.baking38

And I was kind enough to link to his book so people would be interested in buying it, like I did.

I made this cake today and it came out great! I made it in a 9" round cake pan and it just fit. I put some homemade salted caramel on top after it had cooled. It was fantastic- really nice moist crumb and excellent flavor. It's a favorite. Thank you!